PORT KLANG, Sept 2 (Bernama) -- Ports must develop adequate manpower and skills to back up large-scale operations to achieve productivity and minimise turnaround time, said Transport Minister Datuk Ong Tee Keat.

"Attracting ships is just not a question of providing facilities and having impressive technical features," he told reporters after visiting Westports here on Monday.

Ong said Westports was ranked among the top five ports in the world for productivity.

He praised the port for consistently achieving 35 gross moves per hour in container handling.

"This has raised the bar to a standard that has yet be emulated by other Malaysian ports," he said.

Ong said the changes in global trade and maritime transport had pushed ports to expand their capacity and position themselves to cater to bigger ships

"Westports has responded to this challenge by practising a supply-driven policy in developing facilities well ahead of demand and is well-equipped with the state-of-the-art equipment and system to handle big ships and the huge volume of boxes.

"In fact Westports is the first port in Malaysia to have the twin-lift crane," he said.

Ong said the visit had allowed him to know more about the people in the logistics business.

Among those present were Westports executive director, Ruben Emir Gnanalingam, and the main line operators.

Ong also presented medals to six Westports quay crane operators for achieving high productivity rate during the last seven months.

On Port Klang, which is the nation’s premier port and ranked 16th in the world, Ong said it has targeted to achieve container throughput of 12 million twenty foot equivalent units (TEUs) by 2012.

To achieve the target, he urged the Port Klang Authority and the two port operators to work closely to carry out more promotional works to woo more shipping and feeder lines to call at Port Klang.

"Port Klang’s container volume has grown from three million TEUs in 2000 to seven million TEUs last year. For the first seven months of this year it handled a total of 4.66 million TEUS. It expects to reach eight million TEUs by year-end.

"If this trend continues, I am sure Port Klang can achieve the target," he said.

Meanwhile, Gnanalingam said Westports would not rest on its laurels and complacency would not be tolerated.

"We have innovated and introduced systems and processes with the objective of staying relevant and providing the highest level of service to our customers," he said.